that's me and who's this who recognizes this man any idea little hint former US president oh very good very good my students think Bill Clinton no bachelor students older hey Rosa vote very correct known from a night in the museum the movie which is a very strange claim to fame for a u.s. president but that's how most people recognize him anyway in 1912 he wanted to be reelected as a US president and back in those days of course they didn't have television they didn't even have a radio if you wanted to be US president you had to travel from city to city and the only means of advertisement was a brochure there we see it with the image printed on it now they just wanted to leave they have printed three million brochures and we're ready to leave and then somebody from the campaign team saw something terrible on it not the face but the writing moffat Studios Chicago in other words a certain mr. Moffet from Chicago held the rights to that image and they totally forgotten to speak to him so they had a crisis meeting and one of them said hey what are we gonna do moffat has all the power once said hey you know what let's just do it anyway just not in Chicago probably have to pay a little fine but the fine would have been three million $1 per unauthorized copy and of course scandal so they didn't do that they came up with a different solution which I will tell you about at the end of my talk power that's the topic negotiation power tell you a little story I teach at Munich Business School and across the street we have a little snack bar and it's called it's run by a guy called Giovanni and the place is called javonni's both said oh awesome a name that is impossible to translate because it's very Bavarian so Giovanni stands there in front of his boat side wasa and he waves at me every morning is a very nice guy he doesn't have any power over me but the moment I approach him and say hey Giovanni because he knows pizza he started selling pizza but years ago and it's really good and if I said hey Jimmy I need the recipe for a pizza because there's a pizza contest all of a sudden he has power over me and the more important this competition is for me the more power he has so Giovanni is the same it's just me and my perception of Giovanni now let's say he has a son call him Mario I should I asked him before this talk and he does have a son who is called Mario sometimes and so he has a son called Mario and for Mario when Mario was five or six Giovanni is the most powerful person on the planet because he tells the one to go to bed what to eat when to get up everything now as far as I know Mario is about 20 years old Angelo honey is not so powerful anymore but Giovanni's the same now if I see you do I have any power over you not reaiiy could ruin your next 15 minutes or so if I were boring yes certain power now usually I have executives here for about two days and I train them in negotiation so they have paid already and they you know took two days off so I have more power but if you were students I'd have even more power because I would grade you but let's say there are 100 students sitting here for each and every student the perception of my power is different probably one of them is very wealthy he doesn't care he's just sitting there somebody else probably is the only one from a very remote village who could study on university he walks to Munich Business School barefoot every morning uphill probably the way back also a built and to him I'm a god-like figure because I could really make the difference he feels the urge to bring me refreshments and beverages doing class hasn't happened yet but hopefully one nature so to all these students sitting there to all these people they have a different perception of power let's imagine you meet the CEO you see the CEO of your company in a restaurant and you see why powerful guy and your friend is there I say who's that fat guy said well it's a seal so so the power is not in him it's in your perception and that is the idea of power in a negotiation that there is no power there's only the perception of power which is inside of you and I'll show you a more extreme example of another gentleman Jim Stockdale Jim Stockdale was a US soldier during the Vietnam War and he was captured by the Viet Cong was put in a Cell and one night something happened they rattled on his cell I just open it was war after all and very polite and they said something you never want to hear when you're in a jail cell they said you face and that is why you will play the starring role in a propaganda movie against the United States tomorrow morning and he sat down in his stool they closed the door what power did this guy have well he thought for a while then he took the stool and smashed his face and he smashed it again and again until it was a bloody mess not a good image for a propaganda movie which was never shot he was actually in prison for over seven years and he survived and later he he said that that night he cried in his cell not because of the pain probably not only because of the pain but he said that for the first time in all these years he felt powerful and he regained his confidence well he survived he became a Vice Admiral and went to politics few years ago a u.s. senator was running going for a jog on Capitol Hill wearing a nice watch and somebody came with the international symbol you can turn off him with the international symbol for power a loaded gun he said give me a watch and he said Wow very nice good to see you because you know I have cancer I'm terminally ill I wanted to commit suicide anyway but then my wife wouldn't collect the life insurance so please just you know shoot you do all of us a great favor and you can just remove the watch easily it's a little tricky but I would manage so the Robert was probably standing there looking at the guy looking at his gun scratching his head and just walked off so the senator wasn't sick with little ruse but I think it was quite justified so why am I telling you this this story about James Stockdale this story about the senator because sometimes we face a loaded gun in a negotiation we're scared we think the other one is so much more powerful he has all the more options we are looking for a job we're looking we're at the bank looking for a loan so we see this loaded gun and no matter where I am because I worked a lot for cars suppliers they said how we're facing Daimler and Audia then I worked for these big companies and they didn't feel like gods they said we have to you know we need our supplies we can't build cars the union's think the big bosses run the factories then I work for the big bosses in union contracts big bosses don't feel like big bosses they think we don't have any power we're employees ourselves we have two year contracts the media is against us the courts are against us we are nothing so that's what I'm trying to tell you that we only see the other guys loaded gun and it's the same in every negotiation so before you face a negotiation and we don't have much time there's not a training it's just a little talk but you have to ask yourself what is the worst thing that can happen what's the worst thing this guy could do to you it's gonna kill you probably not if you're not imprisoned in a Vietcong cell and probably is not going to happen if it's just a negotiation what's the worst thing you can always go home watch Netflix probably even show if you're a little lucky it's okay right and especially live in Germany or in a western country nothing really bad is gonna happen you can always rely on welfare yeah and you know welfare pays Netflix ten euros a month that's fine that's the worst thing that can happen eat spaghetti all day okay it's not that bad so if you imagine this and usually a negotiation it's much better it's not even that bad so there is no power in a negotiation it's only the perception of power so let's go back to the first gentleman Teddy Roosevelt what happened in that very instance well the head of the election campaign came and said Moffett doesn't have any power you think he has a power but he doesn't we have all the power because he doesn't know about it so he sent Moffett a telegram and said hey we are the campaign team of the old and new US president we're planning to print 3 million brochures and we're looking for a great photograph would be great advertisement for the photographer how much would you be willing to pay us if we chose yours you have eight hours because they had to leave almost immediately can the reply I've never done anything like that but under these circumstances I would be willing to pay you $250 I'm sure they could have negotiated it up with a certain negotiation adviser but they were nice and hey Moffett got the advertisement of his life over 100 years later we still talked about him so that's what the thought I want to leave you with in any negotiation in any argument there is no power there is only the perception of power because you are the source of all power I wish you great deals thank you very much you [Applause] [Music]